The hyphen (-) is a small mark or bar that can be used in several different ways, but always demonstrates that what it is attached to does not make up a word by itself. One important rule is that there are no white spaces on both ends of the hyphen.

Using the hyphen to write compound words

The most common use of the hyphen is to create compound words – that is, a word that is made up of two or more words. For example:

The preference of the individual should be taken into account and used.

Hyphenating compound modifiers

Hyphenating is very important when using compound modifiers. A compound modifier is a compound word (a word made up of two or more words joined together) that modifies a noun. For example:

He was wearing a light-blue scarf.He was wearing a light blue scarf.

Without the hyphen, then the reader might think that the scarf itself weighed less than normal. Hyphenation is very important when using a compound word to modify a noun.

Hyphenating prefixes

One especially interesting area is the hyphenating of prefixes. A prefix is something added before the root of a word. For example, unhappy;un is the prefix and happy is the word. You can use the hyphen to avoid confusion with prefixes. For example:

She managed to recover her cushion.She managed to re-cover her cushion.

Hyphenating the prefix changes the meaning of the sentence. The first example suggests that someone has managed to recover her missing cushion, while the second example clarifies that she has actually managed to get a new cover on her cushion.

You should always hyphenate prefixes when either a capital letter or number follows:

post-Napoleonic Europepre-1960s popular music

You should also hyphenate if the prefix is added to a word that already contains a hyphen:

Their post-globe-trotting days

Finally, if the hyphen is added to a compound word that contains a white space then the existing white space should also be replaced with a hyphen: